Curriculum Focus: Literacy

Introduction from Beth Morrish

Powerful Words, Greater Peterborough UTC

‘Powerful Words’ is a five-year programme that runs during tutor time and explicitly teaches two words each week from the Academic Word List, with the aim that by the time students leave Year 11 they will have acquired at least 300 of the 570 word hoard.

The benefits to students are clear, but the professional development benefits for our staff are also hugely significant. Through the training and teaching resources we’ve provided through each school’s literacy lead, teachers have developed an enriched understanding of evidence informed strategies that best help students to learn and retain new vocabulary, such as etymology (the history of word origins), morphology (the structure of words), and collocations (the other words that they are most likely paired with in a sentence).

We visited Greater Peterborough UTC to see how they’re implementing the Powerful Words programme.

Real World Reading, The Ferrers School

News and current affairs will never disappear, so what better way for students to hone their literacy skills than through analysing topical issues?

The Real World Reading programme has been introduced at The Ferrers School in the 2022/23 academic year and learning about current affairs and topical subjects is central to it.

Esther Gray, Vice Principal at The Ferrers School, said: “Literacy is a significant driver for school improvement at The Ferrers School. Real World Reading addresses a gap here which will be a foundation in terms of moving the quality of teaching and learning experiences across the school.

“Those core literacy skills that we want to nurture in our children are now being developed cross-curricular with Real World Reading. This is important.

The programme is led at The Ferrers School by Claire McLauchlan with the support of Meridian Trust’s Beth Morrish. Staff quickly got used to delivering Real World Reading in the classroom as the resources within it are accessible and comprehensive.

The main learning resource for Real World Reading for Years 7 and 8  is with The Day, an online newspaper for young people. The resources available from The Day help schools teach critical thinking, real-world knowledge and civic engagement.

An example of a topic for The Day involved a woman who had won an international literacy prize. The students debated if there needed to be ‘prize winners’ in the arts with the argument that prizes go against the very nature of art.

Esther added: “Students are now familiar with The Day’s format and know what to expect whether the subject is in English, science or arts. It provides a good routine for them in terms of learning and discussion. It is still early days but we would like to open it up to more year groups in the future.”

Year 7 students said about Real World Reading: “It is a great way to start the lesson” and “it allows us as the next generation to learn about the world as we know it and the generations before.”

Powerful Words, Northstowe Secondary College

Words unlock learning.  They’re sticky things that glue together knowledge, ideas and concepts.  Some words are trickier to learn than others. Explicit Vocabulary Instruction is key to building a rich vocabulary for our students.

Northstowe Secondary Colleges places words front and centre in the curriculum and the classroom.  The tutor time Powerful Words programme has been running ever since the school first opened its doors to students in 2019.  Each week students learn and experiment with using academic vocabulary that is found across the curriculum, and in academic texts such as reports, newspapers and textbooks – words like ‘investment’ and ‘marginal’.

But teaching vocabulary explicitly doesn’t end in tutor time; the approach is embedded in all curriculum areas, with subject specific vocabulary being taught in every classroom from English through to Geography and PE.  Words like ‘metaphor’, ‘delta’ and ‘anaerobic’.

Carl Deighton, an Assistant Headteacher at Northstowe Secondary College, oversees the whole school literacy strategy and ensures that teachers are well supported to bring best practice and approaches into their teaching. 

He explains how, “We have template slides for teaching Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary across the  curriculum.  The slides draw on different elements such as etymology, morphology, synonyms, illustrations of what the word doesn’t mean, and example sentences, so that students can really get under the meaning of the word, and hopefully make it stick in their memory!”

“When planning Learning Chapters, our Curriculum Leaders explicitly identify the words that are going to be taught in that particular unit of work, as well as planning in lots of opportunities to practice using and revisiting the word through quizzes, lesson starters and discussion activities.”

Carl makes sure new teachers to the school are quickly up to speed with the expectation for explicit vocabulary instruction, and the pedagogy that supports it.

He added: “The full curriculum plan is emphasised on the induction days. New teachers have two training days which includes a CPD session on whole school fluency, so there are no literacy and numeracy barriers.”

This learning is supported by the New Group Reading Test (NGRT). This is a reading comprehension test that allows us to drill into students’ vocabulary knowledge and wider comprehension skills. The impact of explicit vocabulary instruction being embedded so fully across our curriculum is clear to see in the NGRT progress of students and the impact on reading ages. 

Alongside this, we’re seeing an impressive increase in the number of students who are falling in the top stanines of the assessment (stanine 8 & 9).  For example, last year there were 27% of students that fell into the top stanines at the end of Year 7, but this had increased to 38% by the end of Year 8.  We regularly evidence these outcomes to our Academy Council who are thrilled to see the impact of explicit vocabulary instruction on helping Northstowe students fulfil their potential.”

Little Wandle Letters and Sounds, Trumpington Park Primary School

With a commitment that every child should be a fluent reader by the time they leave Key Stage 1, Trumpington Park Primary School was named a Little Wandle Champion School, the first in Cambridgeshire and one of only 11 across the UK.

More than 4,500 schools are using Little Wandle Letters and Sounds for their phonics and early reading provision. Trumpington Park first introduced the resource at the start of the 2021-22 school year, and following excellent progress its phonics screening for Reception and Year 1 is well on track for a 90-95% pass rate this year.

Now, following a visit from Little Wandle assessors in February 2023, Trumpington Park has been selected as a Champion School for its “exemplary practice”, including meeting 16 Standards of Excellence, and will support other schools in the successful implementation of the resource.

“It is a huge privilege to be named a Little Wandle Champion School in recognition of our work, and drive and desire to contribute to its development and impact in other schools, which will include us being a Little Wandler trainer,” explained Charlotte Yarrow, Assistant Headteacher and Reading Leader at Trumpington Park, who as well as leading implementation of Little Wandle at the school will now do so across the Trust.

“We chose Little Wandle to support our vision for a strong, well-resourced phonics programme. It has been created by teachers, was trialled in similar school-based settings, and we like the whole-class teaching with Keep Up sessions for those who need additional support. Importantly, CPD is part of the programme so can be ongoing for any new staff who arrive, whilst we also use the videos for ongoing coaching.

“Impact on phonics tests is one thing, but it is more than that. It is about children wanting to read and reading for pleasure, and having a joined-up vision on phonics which demonstrates how serious we are about it as a Trust. Meridian Trust really values reading, and our clear message to children and staff is ‘we are readers’.”

Charlotte highlighted the role of two Teaching Assistants who were selected as Reading Champions, and who have been trained and are able to teach the programme. “Buy-in from staff has been really important and, honestly, I couldn’t wish for a better team,” Charlotte said. “Our TAs bring long-term stability, supporting the needs of our children. If we get it right in early years, we get it right for the rest of the school.”

In January 2023, Trumpington Park hosted a Meridian Trust showcase event so other schools could see Little Wandle in action. Nearly 30 visitors descended on the school and observed phonics teaching and Keep Up sessions in Reception and Year 1, as well as mapping sessions. “It was a really successful morning,” Charlotte revealed. “Some Meridian primaries are on their Little Wandle journey, and others are considering moving to Little Wandle, so it was an opportunity for everyone to see what lessons look like and ask key questions about implementation and the roll-out of Reading Champions.”

Trumpington Park is also supporting Martin Bacon Academy with the Little Wandle SEND programme, and will potentially be involved in the development of a new Key Stage 3 resource. “Meridian Trust is always about the children, how we can get the best opportunities available for them, and really thinking about our practice. As part of this process I have visited other schools in the country to see how Little Wandle is making a difference. Having Champion School status can further set us apart,” Charlotte added.

Using New Reading Group Test data at Sawtry Village Academy

Using New Group Reading Test (NGRT) data is just one of the ways Sawtry Village Academy is placing literacy at the heart of its curriculum and supporting its struggling readers.

We caught up with Louise Steer-Jones, Assistant Principal, to find out more.